Roll-to-roll electrochemical polish apparatus

ABSTRACT

A roll-to-roll electrochemical polish apparatus has a first rotator, a transporting device, a pre-treatment device, an electrochemical polish device, a post-treatment device, and a second rotator. The first rotator serves to rotatably spread out a metal foil roll to a metal foil. The transporting device receives and delivers the metal foil. The pre-treatment device receives the metal foil delivered by the transporting device for cleaning and drying the surface of the metal foil. The electrochemical polish device receives the metal foil outputted from the pre-treatment device for polishing the surface of the metal foil. The post-treatment device receives the metal foil outputted from the electrochemical polish device for cleaning and drying the surface of the metal foil. The second rotator serves to wind the metal foil outputted from the post-treatment device into a finished metal foil roll.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the priority of Taiwanese Utility Model Application, No. 102208079, filed on May 2, 2013, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is related to a polish apparatus, and more particular to an roll-to-roll electrochemical polish apparatus carrying out a continuous electrochemical polish process on a metal foil roll by unrolling the metal foil roll, processing a metal foil of the metal foil roll, and winding the metal foil again into a metal foil roll.

2. Description of the Related Art

Flexible substrates are conventionally used in display devices and solar devices and usually need to be processed by a sequence of pre-treatments to ensure a desired quality of surfaces of the intermediate products for subsequent production processes and a preferred yield of the finished products.

Electrochemical surface treatment, such as electrochemical plating, electrochemical polishing or the like, which is one of the foregoing pre-treatments, is used to reduce the roughness of a metal foil.

Conventionally, surface roughness of a metal foil can be smoothened by a mechanical surface treatment. However, when a metal foil with a thickness less than 0.5 mm is processed by the mechanical surface treatment, a residual stress induced from the mechanical surface treatment becomes a barrier to the quality of products made by the metal foil.

Moreover, before the surface treatment is applied, the metal foil is prepared by cutting a metal foil roll into multiple metal sheets. To improve the surface roughness of the metal sheets, surface modification is one of the related conventional polishing techniques in the industry, which requires the use of a costly material, such as zirconia. However, zirconia is hard to acquire, and the amount thereof increases with the increasing degree of surface smoothness of the metal foil, thus running counter to the production cost reduction of the metal foil.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The objective of the present invention is to provide a roll-to-roll electrochemical polish apparatus. As the name “roll-to-roll” implies the electrochemical polish apparatus can directly polish a rolled material (such as a metal foil roll) without carrying out a cutting procedure beforehand, meaning that the cutting procedure is omitted to speed up manufacture.

In order to achieve the foregoing objective, the roll-to-roll electrochemical polish apparatus has a first rotator, a transporting device, a pre-treatment device, an electrochemical polish device, a post-treatment device, and a second rotator. The first rotator is driven by a motor to rotatably spread out a metal foil roll to a metal foil. The transporting device receives and delivers the metal foil. The pre-treatment device is coupled to the transporting device, and receiving the metal foil delivered by the transporting device for cleaning and drying the surface of the metal foil. The electrochemical polish device is coupled to the transporting device, and receiving the metal foil outputted from the pre-treatment device for polishing the surface of the metal foil. The post-treatment device is coupled to the transporting device, and receiving the metal foil outputted from the electrochemical polish device for cleaning and drying the surface of the metal foil. The second rotator is driven by another motor to wind the metal foil outputted from the post-treatment device into a finished metal foil roll.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention, as well as many advantages thereof, may be further elaborated and illustrated by the following detailed description and drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a polish apparatus constructed in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a polish apparatus constructed in accordance with the second embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference to FIG. 1, a first embodiment of an electrochemical polish apparatus in accordance with the present invention has a first rotator 1, a transporting device 2, a pre-treatment device 3, an electrochemical polish device 4, a post-treatment device 5 and a second rotator 6.

The first rotator 1 serves to load a metal foil roll 11, is driven by a motor, which provides a power to steadily rotate the metal foil roll 11, such that a metal foil 12 of the metal foil roll 11 can be spread out. The first rotator 1 has a holder 13 mounted on the first rotator 1 for the metal foil roll 11 to be held by the holder 13 and keeps the metal foil 12 to be spread out in a right direction.

The transporting device 2 serves to deliver the metal foil 12, provides a conveying path for the metal foil 12, and one end of the conveying channel receives the metal foil 12 from the metal foil roll 11. The transporting device 2 has two ultrasound generators 21 respectively embedded in two separated sections of the conveying channel, so that the metal foil 12 can be exposed to ultrasound waves generated by the ultrasonic generators 21 while the metal foil 12 is delivered across the ultrasound generators 21. The transporting device 2 may be a roller assembly supplied with or without power. As the roller assembly pertains to a conventional technique in production line, the description thereof is omitted.

The pre-treatment device 3 serves to receive the metal foil 12 delivered by the transporting device 2, is coupled to the transporting device 2, is adjacent to one of the ultrasound generators 21, The pre-treatment device 3 has a de-oil cleaning unit 31, a first residue-cleaning unit 32 and a first drying unit 33 sequentially arranged therein. The de-oil cleaning unit 31 is collaborated with the ultrasound generator 211 to remove oil from a surface of the received metal foil 12 with the help of added chemicals known in the conventional art. The first residue-cleaning unit 32 removes chemical residues from the oil-removed surface of the metal foil 12. The first drying unit 33 may be a hot air nozzle sending out hot air to dry out the water on the surface of the metal foil 12.

The electrochemical polish device 4 receives the pre-treated metal foil from the pre-treatment device 3, is coupled to a portion of the transporting device 2, receives the metal foil 12 delivered by the pre-treatment device 3, and polishes the surface of the metal foil 12. Acid solutions can be added in electrochemical polish device 4 to carry out a polishing process, which is conventional in the art and is omitted for brevity. The electrochemical polish device 4 has a resistance meter measuring the resistance of the mixed acid solution during the polish process and has a monitor 41 to show a measured resistance value for users to compare the resistance value with a critical value. Users may replace the mixed acid solution after the resistance value of the mixed acid solution reaches the critical value due to increasing pollution presenting in the mixed acid solution.

The post-treatment device 5 receives a polished metal foil from the electrochemical polish, is coupled with the transporting device 2, is adjacent to the other ultrasound generator 21, and receives the metal foil 12 delivered by the electrochemical polish device 4. The post-treatment device 5 has a second residue-cleaning unit 51 and a second drying unit 52. The second residue-cleaning unit 51 is collaborated with the neighboring ultrasound generator 21 to remove the acid solutions and impurities from the surface of the metal foil 12. The second drying unit 52 dries out the water on the surface of the metal foil 12.

The second rotator 6 rotatably collects a finished metal foil 12′ outputted from the post-treatment device 5 and is driven by another motor, and the finished metal foil 12′ is wound by the second rotator 6 as a finished metal roll 11′. The second rotator 6 also has a holder 61 mounted thereon for the finished metal foil 12′ to be held by the holder 61 while the finished metal foil 12′ is wounded.

Furthermore, the motors for driving the first rotator 1 and the second rotator 6 are controllable in terms of their torque outputs, such that the metal foil 12 is pulled by a tensile force generated by rotation of the motors and the surface flatness of the metal foil 12 can be ensured during transportation.

With reference to FIG. 2, a second embodiment of an electrochemical polish apparatus in accordance with the present invention is substantially the same as the foregoing first embodiment except further having a wastes reservoir 7 and multiple supplementary tanks 8.

The wastes reservoir 7 serves to collect waste chemical substances generated from operation of the de-oil cleaning unit 31, the first residue-cleaning unit 32, the electrochemical polish device 4 and the second residue-cleaning unit 51. The supplementary tanks 8 are used to respectively refill the de-oil cleaning unit 31, the residue-cleaning unit 32, and the second residue-cleaning unit 51 with the chemical solutions stored in the supplementary tanks 8. Accordingly, the electrochemical polish apparatus can continuously process a complete metal foil roll even when the chemical solutions are depleted by the cleaning and polish processes.

In the foregoing embodiments of the present invention, the aforementioned operations of the electrochemical polish apparatus can be controlled and monitored by a computer.

Many changes and modifications in the above described embodiment of the invention are able to, of course, be carried out without departing from the scope thereof. Accordingly, to promote the progress in science and the useful arts, the invention is disclosed and is intended to be limited only by the scope of the invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A roll-to-roll electrochemical polish apparatus comprising: a first rotator driven by a motor to rotatably spread out a metal foil roll to a metal foil; a transporting device receiving and delivering the metal foil; a pre-treatment device coupled to the transporting device, and receiving the metal foil delivered by the transporting device for cleaning and drying the surface of the metal foil; an electrochemical polish device coupled to the transporting device, and receiving the metal foil outputted from the pre-treatment device for polishing the surface of the metal foil; a post-treatment device coupled to the transporting device, and receiving the metal foil outputted from the electrochemical polish device for cleaning and drying the surface of the metal foil; and a second rotator driven by another motor to wind the metal foil outputted from the post-treatment device into a finished metal foil roll.
 2. The roll-to-roll electrochemical polish apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a wastes reservoir collecting waste chemical substance generated from the pre-treatment device, the electrochemical polish device and the post-treatment device.
 3. The roll-to-roll electrochemical polish apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising multiple supplementary tanks respectively refilling the pre-treatment device, the electrochemical polish device and the post-treatment device with prepared chemical solutions stored therein.
 4. The roll-to-roll electrochemical polish apparatus as claimed in claim 2, further comprising multiple supplementary tanks respectively refilling the pre-treatment device, the electrochemical polish device and the post-treatment device with prepared chemical solutions stored therein.
 5. The roll-to-roll electrochemical polish apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the first rotator has a holder mounted on the first rotator for the metal foil roll to be held by the holder and keeps the metal foil of the metal foil roll to be spread out toward the transporting device.
 6. The roll-to-roll electrochemical polish apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the second rotator has a holder mounted thereon for the finished metal foil to be held by the holder while the metal foil is wounded by the second rotator.
 7. The roll-to-roll electrochemical polish apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the second rotator has a holder mounted thereon for the finished metal foil to be held by the holder while the metal foil is wounded by the second rotator. 